Article June 23, 1928 Issue

Building the Wall

EDWIN STANLEY LEONARD, JR.

The experience of Nehemiah, son of Hachaliah, stands out as an illuminating exemplification of the correct mental attitude toward error. As related in the book of Nehemiah, the report that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates consumed with fire at first brought dismay and grief to the heart of this sincere child of Israel. After much prayer, however, there dawned upon him the realization that it was his work to rebuild the wall.

Like Nehemiah, the Christian Scientist who has caught some vision of the mission of scientific Christianity, namely, the redemption of all mankind from sin, sickness, and death, has consciously commenced his part in the construction of the wall of defense, by endeavoring to establish in his own thinking the truths of the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus;" for he has learned that by the purification of every individual consciousness will the kingdom of heaven be made manifest on earth.

Once having perceived the necessity of building the wall, Nehemiah did not vary from the course of action unfolded to him as the correct one. He listened to none of the arguments of lack of ability, time, means, understanding, which then, as now, would lull heavenly aspirations into complacence with negative or half-hearted activity. No sooner had he set about his task than impersonal evil, the devil, who "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," commenced operations to root out the good intention, nullify its effect, and induce Nehemiah to give up his project. Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and many other insidious adversaries began to aim their mental shafts at those portions of Nehemiah's armor which might be supposed to be weakest.

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